GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Attorney General Bill Schuette and Gov. Rick Snyder are joining the battle to keep the union-backed Protect Our Jobs proposal off the November ballot, saying the measure as written doesn’t give voters “the basic tools” to know exactly what they are voting for.

In a 2-2 vote, Republican members said they agreed with Schuette’s opinion that the measure is essentially a re-boot of the state constitution and not adequately described to people signing the petitions or potential voters.

State and national unions have donated more than $8 million to support Protect Our Jobs, which would enshrine collective bargaining in the state constitution.

Schuette on Monday submitted a brief saying that the measure is a “startling end-run on the legislative and referendum processes,” and that the proposal seeks to “eviscerate some 18 provisions of Michigan’s constitution and more than 170 Michigan statutes without disclosing these facts to the voters.”

Schuette wrote that the governor and Legislature have enacted reforms that have led to economic growth and budget stability, and that “supporters of the POJ proposal may well disagree and desire to take the state in a different direction.

“But that desire must be implemented under one of two basic options: win the day at the ballot box this fall and take control of the Michigan House and Senate, or propose statutory referenda that repeal the Legislature’s recent enactments. Either way, the public will be well informed. What POJ organizers cannot do is propose an innocuous-sounding constitutional amendment that has the secret effect of wholesale changes in Michigan law.”

Schuette said the legal case before the appeals court is technically about “whether Michigan citizens will be given the basic tools – such as full publication of the proposal’s changes to existing law – essential to know precisely what the citizens are voting for.”

Protect Our Jobs representatives were not available for comment on Monday. But attorney Andrew Nickelhoff has said he wants to bypass the appeals court and head right to the state Supreme Court.

Nickelhoff has said he is confident the Supreme Court will agree that the ballot proposal meets all legal requirements.

“The members of the court have a job to do, and I’m confident they’ll do it,” he said after the Board of Canvassers meeting. “There is no legal reason this ballot proposal should not be placed before voters on Nov. 6.”

Protect Our Jobs spokesman Dan Lijana said earlier this month there is wide support for the proposal and dismissed Schuette’s earlier analysis.

“Nearly 700,000 Michigan citizens signed a petition to place this initiative on the ballot, more than double what is required by state law,” he said. “Silencing the voice of all voters on the basis of a faulty legal argument defies the spirit of democracy and protections offered to citizens by our constitution."